December 18, 2006

Driving in New Jersey in Late Fall

We live in a lovely part of central New Jersey. You wouldn't know just by looking that New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the US, and that we are just a little over an hour from New York City. Central New Jersey is full of upscale communities like ours, and Hopewell Township is expert at clinging to its open spaces through planning committies and regulations. There's a lot of woodland in central New Jersey, and therefore a lot of wild deer. And everyone I know has a 'hitting a deer with my car' story. Mark up another US tradition to the Willimer family.

I was driving home from work in the winter darkness, when the poor deer appeared out of nowhere. He seemed to do that classic 'deer in the headlight' thing, with a look of "oh, **** " when he knew I was going to hit him. I had that look too, if I'm being honest ! He almost seemed to crouch down and brace himself for the impact - which meant that luckily for me (but not the deer) the front fender of my car took all the impact. The red bits that flew past my windshield were not bits of deer as I first thought, but my front radiator grill disintegrating. The poor deer was killed outright, as was my radiator grill, one of my headlights and both of my turn signals.

I had to wait 30 minutes for a policeman to arrive from Princeton, only to be told that the jurisdiction followed the yellow line down the centre of the road, so then I had to wait another 30 minutes for a policeman from Montgomery (the other side of the road) to make the police report. I let the patrolman look for my missing licence plate - I was dreading finding it embedded in the poor animal's side. However my only souvenir is a sad little wisp of fur stuck in the broken remains of the grill...

Before and After...I'm in one piece but the car is going to be in hospital for at least a week.